New giant particle collider 'right option for science': next CERN chief

Agence France-Presse
November 7, 2024 

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN can be used to study many kinds of fundamental particles, including mysterious and rare tau particles. Oxygen/Moment via Getty Imag

The next head of Europe's CERN physics laboratory said Thursday that he favored moving forward with plans for a giant particle collider far more powerful than the collider that discovered the famous "God particle".

"Scientifically, I am convinced it is the right option," Mark Thomson, whom CERN has tapped to be its next director-general, said of preliminary plans for the Future Circular Collider (FCC).

It is "the right option for CERN, the right option for science", the British physicist said during an online press conference a day after CERN said he would take the helm for a five-year term starting in January 2026.


"Absolutely I wish to pursue that route," he said.

The CERN lab, which straddles the border between France and Switzerland, seeks to unravel what the universe is made of and how it works.

Its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) -- a 27-kilometer (17-mile) proton-smashing ring running about 100 meters (330 feet) below ground -- has among other things been used to prove the existence of the Higgs boson.


Dubbed the God particle, its discovery broadened science's understanding of how particles acquire mass.

The LHC is expected to have fully run its course by around 2040, and CERN is considering building a far larger collider to allow scientists to keep pushing the envelope.

- Hunt for dark matter -

A feasibility study is under way for the 91-kilometer FCC, which CERN estimated earlier this year will cost around $17 billion.

Thomson, an experimental particle physics professor at Cambridge University and the executive chair of Britain's Science and Technology Facilities Council, hailed the efforts to fully grasp the costs involved, saying a final decision was still several years off.

"There is time to build a very, very strong consensus around the project based on the clear scientific argument" for it, he said.

At CERN, Thomson will replace Italian physicist Fabiola Gianotti, who a decade ago was chosen as the first woman to lead the lab. She has also expressed support for the FCC project.

"We are confronted with many crucial outstanding questions in fundamental physics and in our understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe," she told reporters.

Both Gianotti and Thomson said the search for answers was not waiting for the FCC to be built, with so-called dark matter and dark energy among the issues being explored.


Scientists believe that ordinary matter -- such as stars, gases, dust, planets and everything on them -- accounts for just five percent of the universe.

But dark matter and dark energy account for the rest, and scientists have yet to directly observe either.

"We know dark matter is out there, (but) we don't know the nature of dark matter," Thomson said.


"I'm optimistic that some of the experiments that have been constructed and operated at the moment have an opportunity to actually discover what dark matter really is," he said.

© Agence France-Presse

 

Communicating discovery science

New insights on how to communicate basic science – new special issue on JCOM

Sissa Medialab

 

image: 

Created by Cape Town illustrator Tamsin Hinrichsen, is based on a story ‘The Ashes of the Milky Way’. The image is included in the book ‘The Crocodile Who Swallows the Sun’.

 

view more 

Credit: Tamsin Hinrichsen

A gravitational wave has little relevance in the “day-to-day” of our lives. Yet when, for the first time in 2016, the first direct observation of one of these cosmic-scale events was announced, the entire world suddenly turned its attention to this major scientific discovery. The study of cosmic phenomena, like other areas of scientific research (from evolutionary studies to basic mathematics), falls under what is known as basic research. Since it has no direct applications in everyday life, this research can be difficult to communicate. However, as gravitational waves demonstrate, it can prove to be extremely interesting even for a broad, non-specialist audience. The new special issue of the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM), titled 'Communicating Discovery Science,' is dedicated precisely to communicating basic science. The issue (online from October the 21st and available in open access at this link) explores the challenges and opportunities associated with communicating basic science, the reasons why it is important to communicate it, and how insights from this field can also be relevant when communicating other scientific topics closer to practical applications. For the very first time, this special issue of JCOM is also available in prin to be distributed at an symposium on the same topic taking place at Stellenbosch University from 18 – 20 November 2024.

"One of the most common pieces of advice on how to engage the public with scientific research is to show how important it is in their everyday lives, but in reality, we see that people can become enthusiastically interested in basic science as well," explains Rick Borchelt. Borchelt has been the Director of Communications and Public Affairs and Senior Advisor to the Director for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, and recently retired after a 40-year career communicating about and advocating for federal support of science and technology. He is also the coordinator of the newly published special issue on JCOM, which stems from his work alongside Brooke Smith (Director of Science and Society at the Kavli Foundation) for the joint Kavli Foundation/DOE project “The Science Public Engagement Partnership” (SciPEP), focused on providing scientists with the confidence, efficacy, and tools to engage the public around basic science.

"Basic science doesn’t provoke widespread debates like other fields, such as climate research, vaccines, and the heated discussions around misinformation," explains Borchelt. Discovery science isn’t particularly divisive, and that might seem like a good thing, but in reality, it also puts it at risk of not attracting enough attention. “Basic science is not a concern, but because it’s easy to overlook, and if it’s overlooked, it’s not going to be funded," points out Borchelt. The SciPEP project studied the communication of basic science for five years, with the aim of understanding these challenges, but also highlighting the strengths of basic science and learning how to best communicate it. The special issue, which features many of the researchers who contributed to the project, brings together many of the insights that emerged from this extensive work.

In the special issue, you can find contributions from Borchelt himself, Brooke Smith, and Keegan Sawyer on the foundations of the project, helping the reader understand the purpose of this effort. "In our work, we decided not to try to define what basic science is. Instead, we chose to focus on the scientific process, identifying discovery science as those initial steps in the path—the discovery phase." In this sense, basic science is present in every scientific field, even in those that will eventually lead to practical applications useful to everyone. "It’s important to communicate that when a major scientific announcement is made, it doesn’t come out of nowhere; there are decades of 'silent' work leading up to that result. This is a micro-narrative that we believe should also be included when communicating applied science and technology," says Borchelt.

The special issue can be ideally divided into three parts, with the first papers outlining the philosophical foundations that must be considered when addressing the main theme, a section dedicated to in-depth analyses of strategies and goals for science communication, and finally, some practical examples from fields such as astrophysics, experimental physics (the observation of the Higgs boson and how CERN managed communication over the decades), and ocean studies.

"In one of the papers, important platforms for the dissemination of science, such as EurekAlert! are discussed, examining, for instance, the balance between basic science and applied science in these services (Jingwen Zhang et al.)," explains Borchelt. "Milne and colleagues’ work, on the other hand, builds a bridge between basic science and social applications: they worked with scientists and members of the public to understand people’s opinions on the policy implications of basic science."

"I hope the special issue conveys to readers that curiosity is one of the central drivers for communicating science during the discovery phase. It’s not just about what science does for you or how it can change your life in tangible ways. It’s important to help people understand that science in its discovery phases has profound effects on them, even if they may not see its relevance for decades. These are long-term strategies, and engaging people in this is critical to maintain a robust scientific enterprise."

The Communicating Discovery Science JCOM Special Issue can be read for free on JCOM.

Created by Cape Town illustrator Tamsin Hinrichsen, is based on a story ‘The Ashes of the Milky Way’. The image is included in the book ‘The Crocodile Who Swallows the Sun’.

Credit

Tamsin Hinrichsen

Journal

Journal of Science Communication

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Communicating Discovery Science

Article Publication Date

21-Oct-2024

 

Verified users on social media networks drive polarization and the formation of echo chambers

Cell Press

 

image: 

Echo chamber formation sharpened by priority

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Credit: iScience/Ferraz de Arruda et al.

When X (formerly Twitter) changed its verification system in 2022, many foresaw its potential to impact the spread of political opinions on the platform. In a modeling study publishing October 22 in the Cell Press journal iScience, researchers show that having verified users whose posts are prioritized by the platform’s algorithms can result in increased polarization and trigger the formation of echo chambers. Because X’s new verification system allows almost anybody to become verified, this side effect could be taken advantage of by users wishing to manipulate others’ opinions, the researchers say.

“Our findings confirm that ideologues and verified users play a crucial role in shaping the flow of information and opinions within the social network,” says first author Henrique Ferraz de Arruda (@hfarruda), a computer scientist at George Mason University. “When verified people post things, it can reach more people, which allows them to have a significant impact on the formation and reinforcement of echo chambers.”

Though many people speculated that X’s verification system might have ramifications, its actual impact hasn’t been studied in depth—in part because the platform no longer allows researchers to access its data. For this reason, the researchers used a computational model simulating how people post and receive messages on social media platforms to investigate how having a larger number of verified users might impact polarization and the formation of echo chambers. Within the model, they tweaked the number of verified users and also varied how stubborn these individuals were in their opinions.

They showed that verified users can actually facilitate consensus on the platform if they are not stubborn in their opinions. However, if verified users are “ideologues” with entrenched opinions that they hope to disseminate, their presence can drive polarization. When verified user ideologues held extreme views, their presence triggered the formation of echo chambers in addition to driving polarization. In contrast, the presence of verified centrist ideologues decreased polarization, while the presence of stubborn but unverified centrists drove polarization without triggering echo chambers.

“We found that even centrist ideologues, who may appear as a moderating force on the surface, can have a significant impact on the opinion dynamics when in enough numbers,” says Arruda.

These differences were driven because of changing connections within the network—essentially, how users followed or unfollowed others within the network.

“When the number of ideologues in the network becomes sufficiently large, regardless of whether they exhibit centrist or extremist behavior, we observed that a significant portion of the messages exchanged in the network are either sent to or received from these influential users,” says Arruda. “This suggests that, when social network algorithms prioritize visibility over content control, the users may be able to reach others to reinforce their opinions in groups, which could entrench echo chamber structures.”

Though the study was based on X’s framework, the researchers say that the results are probably also relevant to other social media platforms. They say that social media companies should be aware of the possible impact they have on political polarization and attempt to mitigate this within their algorithms.

Though in some cases social media moguls could be attempting to polarize their networks, Arruda speculates that for other platforms, this “happens as a side effect because they want to make us use the platform more.”

In future research, the team plans to increase the realism of their model by adding features such as news feeds and reposting and to incorporate data from other social media platforms such as Bluesky.

###

This research was supported by the Government of Aragón, Spain and the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Española de Investigación.

iScience, Ferraz de Arruda et al., “Echo chamber formation sharpened by priority users” https://cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(24)02323-X

iScience (@iScience_CP) is an open access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research and interdisciplinary thinking in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. Visit https://www.cell.com/iscience. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com. 

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Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2024.111098 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Echo chamber formation sharpened by priority users

Article Publication Date

22-Oct-2024

A model for the decline of trends, fads, and information sharing

PNAS Nexus

 

image: 

Stylistic examples of the net-benefit curve for the linear threshold model (in green) and the bi-threshold model (in blue).

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Credit: Alipour et al

A model of human behavior finds that people will share information if enough—but not too many—of their contacts do so. Humans are social creatures, and many behaviors and beliefs can spread from person to person. Understanding the dynamics of behavioral diffusion can help encourage healthy or sustainable behaviors or stop the spread of misinformation. Linear threshold models assume that people will adopt a behavior when the number of their social contacts that have done so passes a threshold. Pouria Ramazi and colleagues propose an addition to the model, in which people drop a behavior when the number of their contacts who have adopted the behavior passes a second threshold. Periods of decline in the adoption of innovations, fashions going out of style, and gossip becoming stale are among the reasons why a second threshold for behavioral adoption might exist. The authors test their theory using the social media conversations on Twitter (now X) around the Higgs boson and the Melbourne Cup horse race, as well as conversations in China on Weibo about the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. In each case, the bi-threshold model outperformed the linear-threshold model. According to the authors, the results confirm the existence of the second upper threshold in some contexts of diffusion of information.

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Journal

PNAS Nexus

Article Title

Enough but not too many: A bi-threshold model for behavioral diffusion

Article Publication Date

22-Oct-2024

CERN at 70: Smashing elementary particles for humanity

Matthew Ward Agius

DW

September 25, 2024

CERN has been an epicenter of scientific breakthroughs since 1954, including the discovery of the Higgs boson.

 Scientists there hope a new, larger particle smasher will lead them to more discoveries for years to come.

The long tubes of CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Image: Martial Trezzini/Keystone/AP/picture alliance


The European Organization for Nuclear Research — better known as CERN — is a place of scientific breakthroughs.

Since 1954, thousands of the world's best scientists and emerging minds have converged on Switzerland to explore how the universe works. On September 29, CERN will celebrate its 70th anniversary.

CERN has been the seat of some of the most important discoveries in science — from the confirmation of the elusive Higgs boson in 2012, to more practical innovations like the invention of the World Wide Web.

The Large Hadron Collider

CERN is perhaps best known for its extensive underground particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — a 27-kilometer-long (16-miles-long) tube built beneath the Swiss and French borderlands near Geneva.

Scientists have been accelerating particles around the LHC since September 2008.

The LHC works by sending separate, highly energized particle beams in opposite directions through the 27-kilometer-long tubular vacuum.

The particle beams consist of a type of particle called protons, which are guided by superconducting electromagnets, making them collide at almost the speed of light.

The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is like firing two needles 10 kilometers at each other with the precision to make them collide.

When the particles collide, they produce energy that is used to create new particles.

The LHC is one of 11 other particle accelerators based at CERN. Researchers use them to help advance a range of technologies, including some that impact our daily lives.

Their research has helped construct more powerful computers and microchips, improve the quality of technology used in healthcare, energy and space exploration.

Higgs boson breakthrough in 2012

At the top of CERN's agenda using the LHC was the ambition to find the Higgs boson particle.

The Higgs boson is a type of particle named after Nobel Prize physicist Peter Higgs. Higgs believed the particle created a field which fills the entire universe and gives other particles their mass.

In 2012, after decades of research, scientists at CERN finally found proof of Higgs' theory — they had found a Higgs boson.

It was a colossal scientific breakthrough that opened a whole new field of particle physics research and helped explain why particles bunched together at the formation of the universe.

Nobel Prize for 'God particle' discoverers  01:19

CERN aren't trying to create black holes

Prior to the LHC being switched on, there were concerns that smashing protons together at sub-light speed would lead to the formation of tiny black holes.

We think of black holes forming only when massive stars implode, but some theories suggest that tiny, quantum black holes can form when particles collide.

These tiny black holes are nothing like the black holes that suck matter inside them in space. They would only last for fractions of a second and be completely safe.

In fact, CERN researchers might like the formation of such a theoretical black hole inside a particle accelerator. It would give them an opportunity to see how gravity behaves on a quantum scale.

Peter Higgs, who along with Francois Englert won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the Higgs boson.

Image: Sean Dempsey/AP Photo/picture alliance

What's next for CERN?

Scientists aren't finished with CERN's LHC. Beyond the discovery of the Higgs bosons, there are many other fundamental, unanswered questions about the universe.

They are developing a second-generation High Luminosity LHC. The upgrade will enable them to increase the number of proton collisions in the LHC to be at least five times.

This "LH-LHC" will likely be operational around 2041. Scientists aim to perform detailed studies of Higgs bosons by generating at least 15 million of the particles each year.

With the use of upgraded technology to generate more particles (and collisions), CERN hopes it will learn more about the once elusive Higgs boson, and discover new particles as yet unknown to science.

Edited by: Fred Schwaller

Mysteries of universe revealed? Hardly. CERN still fascinates on its 70th anniversary

The scientific center that is home to the world’s largest particle accelerator and is billed as the world’s biggest machine is celebrating its 70th anniversary

ByJAMEY KEATEN 

Associated Press
October 1, 2024

GENEVA -- The research center that is home to the world’s largest particle accelerator is celebrating its 70th anniversary on Tuesday, with the physicists who run it aiming to unlock secrets about dark matter and other mysteries to promote science for peace in today's conflict-darkened world.

Over the last seven decades, CERN, the sprawling research center on the Swiss-French border at Geneva, has become a household name in Europe, the West and beyond, but its complex inner workings remain a puzzle to many people.

Here's a look at CERN and how its discoveries have changed the world and our view of the universe — and could change them more in coming years.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, which has retained the French-language acronym CERN for its predecessor outfit, had its origins in a 1951 meeting of the U.N.’s scientific organization that sought to build a state-of-the-art physics research facility in Europe and ease a brain drain toward America after World War II. Groundbreaking was on May 17, 1954.

Today, for cognoscenti, CERN is probably best known as home to the Large Hadron Collider, trumpeted as the world’s biggest machine, which powers a network of magnets to accelerate particles through a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground loop in and around Geneva and slam them together at velocities approaching the speed of light.

By capturing and interpreting the results of the collisions — as many as a billion per second — of such beams of particles, thousands of scientists both on hand at the center and remotely around the world pore over the reams of resulting data and strive to explain how fundamental physics works.

CERN says collisions inside the LHC generate temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the core of the sun, on a small scale and in its controlled environment.

At the collider, “every day we are able to reproduce the conditions of the primordial universe as they were a millionth of a millionth of a second after the Big Bang. Yet, many open, crucial questions remain,” CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti told an anniversary celebration attended by many leaders of its 24 member countries.

Over the years, CERN and its experimental facilities have grown into a vast research hub with applications in many scientific fields and industries.

“In a world where conflicts between countries, religions and cultures sadly persist, this is a truly precious gift which cannot be taken for granted,” Gianotti said.


Experiments in the collider helped confirm in 2012 the subatomic Higgs boson, an infinitesimal particle whose existence had been theorized decades earlier and whose confirmation completed the Standard Model of particle physics.

CERN is also where the World Wide Web was born, in the mind of British scientist Tim Berners-Lee 35 years ago, as a way to help universities and institutes share information. In 1993, the software behind the web was put into the public domain — and the rest is history, in smartphones and on computers worldwide.

The spillover science and tools generated at CERN have rippled through the world economy. Thousands of smaller particle accelerators operate around the world today, plumbing applications in fields as diverse as medicine and computer chip manufacturing.

Crystals developed for CERN experiments roughly four decades ago are now widely used in PET scanners that can detect early signs of health troubles like cancer and heart disease.

“It is thanks to CERN that we have touch screens. It is thanks to CERN that we have new tools for fighting cancer," European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen said at the anniversary celebration. “You are constantly working with European industries to build low-emission airplanes, or to create new solutions to transport liquid hydrogen.”

"CERN is the living proof that science fosters innovation and that innovation fosters competitiveness,” von der Leyen said, adding that she wanted to increase spending for research in the next EU budget.

Some skeptics have over the years stirred fears about CERN. Insiders variously argue and explain that such fears are overblown or inaccurate, and CERN has issued its own retort to some of the theories out there.

For the most part, CERN technicians, researchers and theoreticians of more than 110 nationalities today carry out new experiments that aim to punch holes in the Standard Model — smashing up conventional understandings to move science forward — and explain a long list of lingering scientific unknowns.

Its scientific whizzes hope to solve riddles about dark energy — which makes up about 68% of the universe and has a role in speeding up its expansion — and test hypotheses about dark matter, whose existence is only inferred and which appears to outweigh visible matter nearly six-to-one, making up slightly more than a quarter of the universe.

CERN has two big projects on its horizon. The first is the High-Luminosity LHC project that aims to ramp up the number of collisions — and thus the potential for new discoveries — starting in 2029.

The second, over the much longer term, is the Future Circular Collider, which is estimated to cost 15 billion Swiss francs (about 16 billion euros or $17.2 billion) and is hoped to start operating in an initial phase by 2040.

Despite its aim to foster scientific progress in the cause of peace and humanity, CERN has found itself ensnared in politics.

Its constitution says the organization “shall have no concern with work for military requirements.” In 2022, CERN's governing council voted to pause ties with institutes in Russia because of President Vladimir Putin’s order for Russian troops to invade Ukraine earlier that year. Some fear that applications from CERN's research could make their way into Moscow's war machine.

On Nov. 30, CERN will formally exclude Russia — affecting some 500 scientists, about 100 of whom have joined non-Russian institutes in order to maintain their research with the center.

The suspension will come at a cost, depriving CERN of some 40 million Swiss francs in Russian financing for the High-Luminosity LHC. It amounts to about 4.5% of the budget for its experiment, which will now have to be shouldered by other CERN participants.

CERN counts 19 European Union countries plus Britain, Israel, Norway, Serbia and Switzerland as members, while the United States and Japan — plus the EU and the U.N. educational, scientific and cultural organization — have observer status. Russia and a Russia-based nuclear research institute had their observer status suspended in 2022.

 SPACE/COSMOLOGY

Combination and summary of ATLAS dark matter searches in 2HDM+a

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Science China Press

In the 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed that the velocities of galaxies in the Coma Cluster were too high to be maintained solely by the gravitational pull of luminous matter. He proposed the existence of some non-luminous matter within the galaxy cluster, which he called dark matter. This discovery marked the beginning of humanity's understanding and study of dark matter.

Today, the most precise measurements of dark matter in the universe come from observations of the cosmic microwave background. The latest results from the Planck satellite indicate that about 5% of the mass in our universe comes from visible matter (mainly baryonic matter), approximately 27% comes from dark matter, and the rest from dark energy.

Despite extensive astronomical observations confirming the existence of dark matter, we have limited knowledge about the properties of dark matter particles. From a microscopic perspective, the Standard Model of particle physics, established in the mid-20th century, has been hugely successful and confirmed by numerous experiments. However, the Standard Model cannot explain the existence of dark matter in the universe, indicating the need for new physics beyond the Standard Model to account for dark matter candidate particles, and the urgent need to find experimental evidence of these candidates.

Consequently, dark matter research is not only a hot topic in astronomy but also at the forefront of particle physics research. Searching for dark matter particles in colliders is one of the three major experimental approaches to detect the interaction between dark matter and regular matter, complementing other types of dark matter detection experiments such as underground direct detection experiments and space-based indirect detection experiments.

Recently, the ATLAS collaboration searched for dark matter using the 139 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data accumulated during LHC's Run 2, within the 2HDM+a dark matter theoretical framework. The search utilized a variety of dark matter production processes and experimental signatures, including some not considered in traditional dark matter models. To further enhance the sensitivity of the dark matter search, this work statistically combined the three most sensitive experimental signatures: the process involving a Z boson decaying into leptons with large missing transverse momentum, the process involving a Higgs boson decaying into bottom quarks with large missing transverse momentum, and the process involving a charged Higgs boson with top and bottom quark final states.

This is the first time ATLAS has conducted a combined statistical analysis of final states including dark matter particles and intermediate states decaying directly into Standard Model particles. This innovation has significantly enhanced the constraint on the model parameter space and the sensitivity to new physics.

"This work is one of the largest projects in the search for new physics at the LHC, involving nearly 20 different analysis channels. The complementary nature of different analysis channels to constrain the parameter space of new physics highlights the unique advantages of collider experiments," said Zirui Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan.

This work has provided strong experimental constraints on multiple new benchmark parameter models within the 2HDM+a theoretical framework, including some parameter spaces never explored by previous experiments. This represents the most comprehensive experimental result from the ATLAS collaboration for the 2HDM+a dark matter model.

Lailin Xu, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China stated, "2HDM+a is one of the mainstream new physics theoretical frameworks for dark matter in the world today. It has significant advantages in predicting dark matter phenomena and compatibility with current experimental constraints, predicting a rich variety of dark matter production processes in LHC experiments. This work systematically carried out multi-process searches and combined statistical analysis based on the 2HDM+a model framework, providing results that exclude a large portion of the possible parameter space for dark matter, offering important guidance for future dark matter searches."

Vu Ngoc Khanh, a postdoctoral researcher at Tsung-Dao Lee institute, stated: “Although we have not yet found dark matter particles at the LHC, compared to before the LHC’s operation, we have put stringent constraints on the parameter space where dark matter might exist, including the mass of the dark matter particles and their interaction strengths with other particles, further narrowing the search scope.” Tsung Dao Lee Fellow Li Shu, added: “So far, the data collected by the LHC only accounts for about 7% of the total data the experiment will record. The data that the LHC will generate over the next 20 years presents a tremendous opportunity to discover dark matter. Our past experiences have shown us that dark matter might be different from what we initially thought, which motivates us to use more innovative experimental methods and techniques in our search.”

ATLAS is one of the four large experiments at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The ATLAS experiment is a multipurpose particle detector with a forward–backward symmetric cylindrical geometry and nearly 4π coverage in solid angle. It consists of an inner tracking detector surrounded by a thin superconducting solenoid, high-granularity sampling electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters, and a muon spectrometer with three superconducting air-core toroidal magnets. The ATLAS Collaboration consists of more than 5900 members from 253 institutes in 42 countries on 6 continents, including physicists, engineers, students, and technical staff.

---

Journal

Science Bulletin

DOI

10.1016/j.scib.2024.06.003 

  NUKE NEWZ 

TVA approves further funding for Clinch River SMR

23 August 2024

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Board of Directors has approved a further USD150 million in additional advanced funding to support the development of potential small modular reactors (SMRs) at the Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

(Image: TVA)

"We believe nuclear energy has to be a part of our regional and national drive toward this clean energy future," TVA President and CEO Jeff Lyash said.

"We previously obtained the nation's first - and still only - early site permit for small modular reactors at Clinch River. That was in partnership with the Department of Energy. The Board has now approved the total of USD350 million, following from that, for the development of small modular reactors at our Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. SMRs are an energy innovation technology that America has to have for our energy security - which is really national security," he said.

This latest funding means brings TVA's investment since the launch of the launch of its New Nuclear Program in February 2022 to USD350 million.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission awarded TVA an early site permit (ESP) for the construction of SMRs at Clinch River in 2019. An ESP certifies that a site is suitable for the construction of a nuclear power plant from the point of view of site safety, environmental impact and emergency planning, but does not specify the choice of technology. A separate licence would be required to construct and operate a plant.

Advanced reactor designs under evaluation for the Clinch River Site Advanced Nuclear Technology Park include both light-water and non-light-water cooled reactors, with more than a dozen vendors providing detailed information to support the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, but the authority says that light-water reactor technology is considered most ready for deployment in the near term. In August 2022, TVA entered an agreement with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) to support planning and preliminary licensing for the potential deployment of a BWRX-300 SMR at the site.

The authority has also partnered with Ontario Power Generation - which has selected the BWRX-300 for deployment at its Darlington New Nuclear Project - to work together on the design, licensing, construction and operation of SMRs.

"We at OPG share TVA's conviction that nuclear power will play a crucial role in meeting increasing demand for low-carbon electricity and energy security. Our partnership with TVA and others on the standard design of the BWRX-300 will expedite the new nuclear generation necessary to help reliably power our growing, electrified economies," OPG President and CEO Ken Hartwick said in response to TVA's latest announcement.

TVA is also part of a consortium of North American utilities formed by Kairos Power to help further develop Kairos' advanced fluoride salt cooled high temperature reactor and, through an agreement from May 2021, is providing engineering, operations, and licensing support to help Kairos deploy its Hermes low-power demonstration reactor at the East Tennessee Technology Park, which is close to the Clinch River Nuclear Site.

But pursuing new nuclear technology must be a national effort in partnership with other utilities, research institutes, and state and federal governments, and will require government support, TVA said in a factsheet issued to accompany its announcement:

"Government and policy support is needed to realise the benefits of new nuclear. First-of-a-kind nuclear technology, like any innovative technology, carries financial and technical risks better shared by multiple partners. Key national, regional and industry leaders have partnered with TVA and are supportive of its plans for advanced nuclear technology. Federal government support is also essential to the advancement of first-of-a-kind technology deployment, due to the risks and additional costs that are inherent to the technology deployment process. In order to reach its long-term net-zero carbon emissions aspirations, TVA will need to consider multiple clean energy technologies, including SMRs, and government support will be critical to timely deployment of SMR technologies in the United States."

Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said the additional USD150 million committed by TVA to the development of SMRS is "critical to our industry's ongoing efforts to construct and deploy advanced nuclear technologies in the US, essential for achieving a clean, reliable and resilient energy future," adding that TVA's continued investment in next-generation nuclear "plays a vital role in fostering innovation and driving progress within our industry."

Kazatomprom lowers 2025 uranium production expectations

23 August 2024

Kazatomprom has cut its uranium production guidance for 2025 by 5000 tU, citing uncertainties in sulphuric acid supply - but 2025 production is still expected to be higher than 2024.

(Image: Kazatomprom)

Announcing its half-year financial results today, the national atomic company's CEO Meirzhan Yussupov said the company had demonstrated "robust financial results" for the six months to 30 June, with a 13% increase in revenue and a 27% growth in net profit to KZT283 billion (USD493 million). The company's recent receipt of a pilot production licence for Inkai 3 block and an exploration licence for the East Zhalpak block, as well as the extension of the exploration period at Inkai 2, demonstrate strategic moves aimed at addressing potential supply and demand imbalances.

"Amid our continued success in long-term contracting activity, Kazatomprom had initially intended to ramp up its 2025 production to 100% of Subsoil Use Agreement levels," Yussupov, said. "However, the uncertainty around the sulphuric acid supplies for 2025 needs and delays in the construction works at the newly developed deposits resulted in a need to re-evaluate our 2025 plans."

Kazatomprom now expects its 2025 production to be between 25,000 and 26,500 tU (on a 100% basis), down from its initial intentions for 2025 production volumes of 30,500-31,500 tU. This would represent a 12% growth from its 2024 guidance, Kazatomprom said.

Today's announcement follows on from the half-year trading update issued on 1 August, when the company increased its 2024 production guidance based on year-to-date production rates but warned that limited access to sulphuric acid and delays in the construction schedule at newly developed deposits could impact future production.

Delays in the construction of surface facilities and infrastructure, a consequence of the extended timelines required for the development and subsequent approval of project design documentation, have resulted in a "significant shift" in production schedules at newly developed projects, the company said. A "significant portion" of the adjusted 2025 production is attributed to construction delays at JV Budenovskoye LLP, where 2025 production is now expected to be 1300 tU instead of the previously approved 4000 tU.

Continuing uncertainty about supplies of sulphuric acid - a key reagent in Kazatomprom's in-situ leach operations - has significantly impacted 2025 production plans, with consequences of supply deficits over 2023-24 having a different degree of impact on uranium mining entities and their production rates depending on the geological structure of the deposits.

Kazatomprom said it has a "comfortable level of inventories" to fulfil its existing contractual commitments in 2025, and it also usually reserves a segment of its annual production as uncommitted. This strategic approach enables it to capitalise on emerging opportunities and adapt to market fluctuations to mitigate risks effectively and meet contractual obligations "even amidst production-related challenges".

"Taking into consideration high level of uncertainties related to the sulphuric acid supply and construction delay challenges, no decision has been taken regarding mine development activity and production volumes for 2026 and beyond," the company said, adding that it expects to announce its 2026 production plans "not earlier than a year from now".

Grossi plans visit to Kursk plant

23 August 2024

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi intends to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant in Russia next week following reports that the remains of a drone were found within the territory of the plant.

The Kursk plant (Image: Rosenergoatom)

Russian authorities informed the IAEA that the drone fragments were located roughly 100 metres from the plant's used nuclear fuel storage facility. The IAEA said it was told that the drone was "suppressed" in the early morning of 22 August.

Grossi has confirmed his intention to personally assess the situation at the site during his visit next week. During his visit, he will "discuss modalities for further activities as may be needed to evaluate the nuclear safety and security conditions of the Kursk nuclear power plant."

"Military activity in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant is a serious risk to nuclear safety and security," Grossi said. "My visit to KNPP next week will provide us with timely access to independently assess the situation."

On 9 August, the IAEA said it was monitoring the situation after Ukrainian forces advanced 30 kilometres into Russia's Kursk region, bordering Ukraine. They had reportedly advanced within 50 kilometres of the Kursk nuclear power plant.

The report of a drone at the Kursk plant comes just days after a drone struck on a road near the perimeter of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. On 17 August, an explosive carried by a drone detonated just outside the plant's protected area, close to the cooling water sprinkler ponds and about 100 metres from the Dniprovska power line, which is the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing external power supply to the plant.

Recent days have seen a fire in one of the cooling towers at the Zaporizhzhia plant and damage to a power and water substation in nearby Energodar, where many of the nuclear power plant workers and their families live.

The six-unit Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant - or ZNPP - is Europe's largest nuclear power plant, has been under Russian military control since early March 2022. It is close to the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

Ukraine and Russia each accuse the other side of putting nuclear safety at risk and breaching the IAEA's central safety principles for nuclear facilities. Grossi explained at the United Nations in April that the IAEA would not attribute blame without "indisputable proof" and said the agency aims to "keep the information as accurate as we can and we do not trade into speculating".

Angra 3 consultation responses published

23 August 2024

Brazil's Eletronuclear has published the responses received from a public consultation on the proposed bidding contract for completing the Angra 3 nuclear power plant.

The Angra 3 construction site (Image: Eletronuclear)

The public consultation was developed with technical support from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and sought to obtain suggestions for improvements in documents related to Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) services, including the risk matrix and other contractual supplements. Contributions and questions were accepted between 25 March and 17 May this year.

In July, Eletronuclear announced it had extended by 45 days the deadline for publishing responses to the consultation due to "the quantity and nature of the contributions received".

The company has now published the responses to the consultation on its website. "In total, 287 contributions were sent by individuals and legal entities, both national and international," it said.

Eletronuclear noted: "As a next step, the completion of independent studies, being developed by BNDES, is awaited to assess the technical, economic and legal plausibility of the project."

Brazil has two operating reactors - Angra 1 and Angra 2 - which generate about 3% of the country’s electricity. Work on the Angra 3 project - to feature a Siemens/KWU 1405 MW pressurised water reactor - began in 1984 but was suspended two years later, before construction began. The scheme was resurrected in 2006, with first concrete in 2010. However, amid a corruption probe into government contracts, construction of the unit was halted for a second time in 2015, when it was 65% complete.

The project resumed again in November 2022 - at the time of the project's revitalisation, Eletronuclear's aim was to start operations by the end of 2026. However, work halted again in April 2023 after disputes with the municipality of the City of Angra dos Reis over agreements relating to "environmental compensation" payments and also changes relating to the granted planning permission.

Eletronuclear noted that the unit's generating capacity will be sufficient to supply 4.5 million inhabitants. The project, it said, will also create around 7000 direct jobs at its peak, in addition to a much larger number of indirect jobs.

Brazil to resume uranium exploration

22 August 2024

Brazilian fuel cycle company Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil (INB) has announced it is to resume exploration for uranium in the country after a 40-year hiatus.

The uranium-phosphate deposit located in Itatiaia (Image: INB)

To this end, INB has launched the Uranium Prospecting and Mining Partnership Programme, seeking to work in partnership with companies in the mining sector. It said new research will be carried out in areas known for their "great mineral potential for this valuable substance".

INB President Adauto Seixas said: "This new round of research comes at an important time for the country, since national production is still lower than the domestic consumption of the Angra I and II nuclear plants, and taking into account the increase in demand with the completion of Angra III."

INB noted that the price of uranium has more than tripled in recent years, "bringing an avenue of opportunities for growth in the sector in the form of exporting concentrated uranium, and also with the possibility of offering nuclear fuel to the international market, adding value to the local production chain".

The company added: "According to a study conducted 40 years ago, Brazil had the eighth largest reserve in the world. However, considering that the second largest reserve is in Kazakhstan, which is the same size as the state of Rio de Janeiro, it is possible that the country could eventually take second place."

According to World Nuclear Association, exploration in the 1970s and 1980s showed that Brazil has reasonably assured resources of 210,000 tonnes of uranium. However, there has been little investment in exploration since the mid-1980s.

The country's three main deposits are: Pocos de Caldas in Minas Gerais state, where a uranium mine closed in 1997; Lagoa Real or Caetité in Bahia state, which has been operating since 1999; and Itataia, now called Santa Quitéria, in Ceará state, where the production of uranium as a co-product with phosphate is planned.

Uranium has been mined in Brazil since 1982, but the only operating mine is INB's Lagoa Real/Caetité mine, with a capacity of 340 tU per year. The mine has known resources of 10,000 tU at 0.3%U.

INB commenced developing the adjacent Engenho mine in January 2017, a 200-300 tU per year open pit operation. Production was initially planned from October 2017, but did not commence.

In January 2020, the country's energy minister reported that investment in INB would allow it to produce 150 tU annually from Caetité, starting in 2020, and expanding to 360 tU per year by 2023. The Santa Quitéria Consortium - a partnership between INB and privately owned fertiliser producer Galvani - expects to produce 2,300 tons of uranium concentrate annually from the Itataia deposit.

In 2022, Brazil produced 43 tU. All mined uranium is used domestically, after conversion and most enrichment abroad. The country's uranium requirements are currently about 339 tU per year.

In December 2022, INB signed a contract with Russia's Rosatom for the supply of 330 tU in the form of natural UF6 for the Angra nuclear power plant from 2023 to 2027. In May 2023, three contracts were signed with Westinghouse to cover the supply of advanced fuel assemblies for Angra 1 reloads.

Podcast: Finland's innovative SMR aims to decarbonise district heating

23 August 2024

Tommi Nyman, CEO of Steady Energy, explains the aims of the LDR-50 small modular reactor that is designed to produce just heat, and not electricity.

Steady Energy was spun out of Finland's state-owned VTT Technical Research Centre in 2023 and is developing the LDR-50 small modular reactor with a thermal output of 50 MW, designed to operate at around 150°C. Unlike nearly all the other small modular reactors being developed around the world, it is not designed to generate electricity - or electricity and heat. Instead it is designed to only produce heat.

Nyman is by background a mechanical engineer who worked at CERN, including on the Higgs Boson project, and then 15 years at Finnish utility TVO including time on the project management team for Olkiluoto 3 and more recently at VTT, Finland's national labs. He joined the World Nuclear News podcast to explain the thinking behind the LDR-50. Here are edited quotes from his interview:

The birth of the idea for a heat-only SMR

"The ambition at VTT was to bring innovations to life and not just to create science papers ... Our researchers found out that almost 10% of all CO2 emissions originated from heating up water or steam to 150°C. We at VTT were interested to find markets where nuclear energy could be most economically exploited. The innovation of the LDR-50 was born from the concept of 'why not build something simple that would only cover low temperature heat markets'. In the context of the climate crisis, nuclear is a very good option but the problem has been getting projects economically sound so that nuclear can be utilised without large subsidies. We know that the most economical way to use nuclear is just to generate thermal energy without using the heat to create electricity. So this is what the origin of the innovation was - why not build a reactor only for heating purposes."

How the LDR-50 might look (Image: Steady Energy)

What are the advantages of an SMR only producing heat?

"Simplicity is the cornerstone of our technology. We returned back to basics and we build on all the knowledge and technologies that are available out there. Simplicity leads us to tackle the economic constraints that there are for our clients and markets - utilities and municipal energy organisations. The product has to fit in their investment portfolio. By only producing heat you can reduce the amount of equipment in a nuclear power plant by 50% and the technical conditions are more bearable, especially when you concentrate on low temperature heat - what we call 150°C and below. The operating pressure (below 10 bar/145 psi) in the reactor vessel is 20 times lower than in those reactors designed for electricity production (similar levels to an Espresso machine), so the thickness of the pressure vessel is only a few centimetres whereas in larger reactors it is 20 centimetres. This makes the cost structure much simpler and economical."

What about the cost of the heat?

"The cost of energy we are aiming for is below EUR40 per MWh, depending on how the utility wants to operate it. Remember that we utilise  almost 100% of the energy that is produced by the reactor whereas in a reactor where you produce electricity you lose 60% of your energy as losses and decay heat."

What are the benefits of district heating schemes?

"A district heating network is built typically underground, delivering heated water or in some cases steam to houses where each house or blocks of homes have their own heat exchanger which then distributes the heat to individual households. These are long-living infrastructures analogous to electric cables. There are more than 17,000 heating networks in Europe but, typically, they are not visible and not very well known because you get the heat to your home without thinking about where it's coming from. It's an efficient way of delivering home heat as it can be centralised and you can benefit from economies of scale. In Europe there has been discussion about increasing the usage of district heating, maybe tripling the number of networks. So the current 24 million homes heated by such networks could be increased to 80 million."

Tommi Nyman (Image: Steady Energy)

What would be the climate impact of decarbonising district heating?

"We have counted that we have over 60 million tonnes of CO2 emissions reduction immediately available by decarbonising those networks that we have identified in the most promising markets, like Finland, Sweden and Poland. These are remarkable amounts and if you count all CO2 emissions reduction potential from heating up water to 150°C that would then be a gigatonne scale of CO2 reduction. Helen, the municipal company of Finland's capital city has set out a strategy to stop using fossil fuels and biomass and combustion in general in the 2030s. With this kind of strategy to address CO2 emissions then nuclear heating is really borne out as a very, very promising solution. We have in fact signed a letter of intent to build up to 10 reactors in Helsinki alone."

What is the planned timeline?

"We have a road map that brings us first to a pilot plant, which will be a one-to-one scale reactor module with electric resisters, so it is like an electric boiler, but its purpose is to demonstrate the thermal hardware behaviour of the boiler. Because it is one-to-one scale we also want to get proof of the supply chain being able to deliver. We want to begin construction of the pilot plant next year and are now in the phase of selecting a construction site. At the same time we are preparing our concept assessments and taking the necessary  regulatory steps. We hope to sign a first plant contract in 2028 to deliver our first plant in operation by 2030."

What about regulatory hurdles?

"In Finland, there are not such big regularly hurdles. It's just the engineering that we have to go through and  demonstrate that our simplified reactor functions as it should. We can locate a plant very close to the existing networks, even within cities. There used to be a categorical requirement of having a 5-kilometre exclusion zone around any nuclear plant but now the regulation takes a different angle. We have to demonstrate that we can reach similar levels of safety with shorter distances. We also build our plants underground, in the bedrock, with passive safety systems, so the exclusion zone on the surface is virtually the fenced area that we use to access the plant. There might be some slower progress on the planning side of how and where the plants can be built because of the municipal process - zoning etc."

What about other applications beyond district heating?

"Desalination is one interesting option, and beyond that industrial heat. Those factories where the use of thermal energy is key in drying processes or sterilisations - medical industry, food, pulp and paper - they use steam or water which is heated up to about 100°C so that brings another large market for us. We have to start raising knowledge about this and capturing new markets for nuclear. People typically associate nuclear with electricity. So that's a marketing exercise for us, to bring the understanding that you can have access to a clean and economical heat with nuclear energy. We also want to make it simple for potential clients, so we don't only sell the plants but we also offer a service contract on top of it, all the way through to the geological disposal of the spent fuel."

On the general outlook for nuclear

"The world has changed very rapidly in recent years and nuclear energy now has a place in the negotiations and discussions about what could help us in the future as an energy source. We are now here to capture new markets for nuclear helping people see that the benefits of nuclear can be quite fast. Still 80% of all energy today is coming from fossil fuels, but now there is rising hope that we can bring new solutions to solve this dilemma."

* Also in this edition of the World Nuclear News podcast, the news update features developments in India, South Africa and uranium production in the USA. Listen and subscribe on all major podcast platforms

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Researched and written by World Nuclear News